I’ve talked with a few homeless people, and too many abuse the system, but not all of them. At the place that gives phones to the homeless, a woman in her early forties was crying uncontrollably. I asked what’s going on, and she told me of meeting someone she thought was her soulmate but got her hooked on drugs, used her as a sex slave, and stole all her possessions.
We prayed and discussed the love of God. She said she had gone to a church in Santa Maria without any shoes, and they called the police because they thought she was crazy. She had been a nurse and has children. She was catching a bus back to Santa Maria, and she would be outside that night.
This is the second time I have heard a church turned a woman away; the others were in Santa Barbara. People coming there are looking for hope, compassion, help, comfort, safety, and God. If a church does not have a plan of what to do with a homeless person, it is past time to make one. Other women will come to church expecting help.